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Day 10

So yesterday at 10:07 pm, I decided to check my word count and guess what I
found? I realized that I’ve already passed the 50,000 from NaNoWriMo!

So instead of saying that I’m done and that I’m going to stop writing because I finished on Day 9, I’m changing my word count goal. Instead I’m going for 100,000!

It seems like an impossible word count to go for, but so did 50,000 in nine days. The only problem now is that my writing seems to be slowing down. That’s okay! This is what NaNoWriMo is all about. Us writers aren’t allowed to give up on our word count goals half-way through. We have to keep going, and even if it is hard to do, at the end of the month we get a finished first draft to edit!

As John Green once said, NaNoWriMo does two things for writers. It disciplines us and gives us permission to suck. Some of you are wondering how I got such a high word count so fast, especially on my first year of NaNo, and it’s really simple:

Don’t listen to that voice in your head that says that you need to change something or that something is horrible writing. You know why? Because most of the time it’s probably right, but you aren’t going to finish if you keep taking one step forward and two steps back.

This is what second, third, forth and fifth drafts. To be honest, my first novel (the unpublished one) went through eight drafts and I am still sure that I did everything wrong.

That voice is always going to be able to find something wrong with your work, but you just have to push it away until you can get your words on the paper. At least that way you have something to edit.

There are several ways to go about ignoring your inner editor. Really, it’s unique to the writer, but my personal favorites are drowning them out with music, blasting through them with wordsprints, or even just not allowing yourself to use the backspace key. Every time you mess up, you will be forced to keep going.

I hope this helped you all! I challenge all of you to write without your inner editor today, and see how much more you can get done!

I post a new NaNoWriMo update every week day on this blog. Like this post if you liked it, and you can follow my website via email, WordPress, or any of the social media widgets on the side. If you are reading this on Goodreads, then you can follow me or add me as a friend!

Also, for one day of NaNoWriMo I will do a Q&A about me, my work, or NaNoWriMo, so if you have questions then comment below or on the Q&A page.

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